A Near Hit
by ancient midnight
Summary: A story about the girls before Gru in their struggle to be adopted and loved. But who could want both the explosive, tomboy Edith and the bookworm, headstrong Margo?
1. Chapter 1

My thoughts on the girl's past

Disclaimer: I do not own Despicable Me, but maybe they'll make a second movie anyways!

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><p>Mrs. Lautner hung up the phone with a smile on her face and an inspiration for a new tattoo; it was a fabulous day and she wanted to dance and draw. She barely managed to punch in the numbers to hubby's cell.<p>

"Hey there Hun, Did you get the answer yet?" She could hear meal scraping the ground as he prepared himself.

"Where are you?"

"In the yard," he said slowly, "moving that scrap truck from the driveway."

Mrs Lautner couldn't help the little dance she did around her kitchen, they had waited for this day for years. When she and her husband found out neither of them could conceive and even help was out of reach, they'd been heart broken. No one would possibly allow a tattoo artist and a scrap yard manager to adopt and neither of them had family willing to be a donor on both parts, as though it would make a difference if it were only her fault or his.

They had met this beautiful little girl. She was the little terror they wanted in their lives, throwing mud pies and punching boys. She loved the huge dogs they had and the small house. She loved the yard and already had built two forts out there to hide in. Mrs Lautner had even had the little girl sleep over a few times. They would sit up in the kitchen and laugh at her husband's snoring until they ran out of hot chocolate.

She had a 'sister' that Mrs. Lautner hoped was as wild as she was. She didn't know if they were related or not, but knew the sister to be older from Edith's stories. The sister hadn't been able to come over too, so they had not met yet.

"Hun, is there something you need to tell me?" Snapping out of her thoughts Mrs Lautner felt bad, afterall he had been waiting just as long as she had.

"Oh yeah,-"

"Hold on, I'll be right there!" A few seconds later the front door popped open. "Brrrrr, it's pouring out there."

Mrs Lautner put the phone down, "Well, don't take off your jacket, we've got some girls to pick up!"

"Girl_sss_? Both? How-I-I thought we had to wait to pick up Margo?" Mrs Lautner jumped up, wrapping her arms around him.

"Mrs Hattie pulled some strings! I've never wanted to kiss a woman this badly!"

Pulling her up higher he laughed, "You'll just have to kiss me instead baby."

It took a few seconds for her to gather her thoughts again. Whacking his arm, she jumped back down.

"Stop it, we have to get going. Oh and now we'll really have two wonderful babies in the house!" She clapped her hands as she ran out the front door.

Mr. Lautner grabbed her coat on his way out, remembering to shut the door on the way out. They were taking the nice car, his wife's car so he had to put the seat all the way back and down while hunched up. "Piece of c***," he muttered.

"Ohhhhh," Mrs Lautner croo'ed, "We'll have to get another car for the girls. We'll be driving them to school-and don't give me that there's a bus c***. WE're driving them there everyday. And picking them up Ohhhhh!"

"And you'll be feeding them, and I'll teach them to throw a nice kick to the groin-"

"_I'll_ be teaching them that one. No, no, I definitely have more experience than you," She laughed.

"Sure, do you think if that cop stops us we could claim you were having a baby?"

"I am! Two!" she patted her flat stomach for effect.

Luckily the cop must have been busy, he never even noticed them going 20 passed the speed limit. They arrived at Ms Hatties' home for girls in record time.

"Are you ready?" Mrs Lautner asked.

"We're parked in a no parking zone to get in there faster, of course I'm ready!"

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><p>A family wanted to adopt Edith. They met Edith and claimed to love her already. Edith was skeptical on that part, but they were still awesome people. She had been over for the weekend a few times, and loved their many dogs. So many dogs.<p>

The door opened and both girls sat straight up. A filthy giant-man came through first, still covered in grease or oil in large black stains.. The Mom after, who walked straight up to Edith and embraced her.

Mrs Lautner couldn't contain herself, she gave Edith a large hug she never wanted to let her go. Mr. Lautner cleared his throat, causing both girls to jump startled. Blushing, he gestured to the seat beside himself.

"Oh, yeah. Let's sit down," Mrs Lautner sat down letting go.

"I love how you do that!" Edith scrambled to try to sit in his lap, "You sound like a big bear!"

"Yeah," He tried to sound as quiet as possible before he picked her up. Having gotten used to him after 8 years, Mrs Lautner was no longer effected by how scary he was. Even Edith was sometimes freaked out. But she was quickily getting used to it.

"Hey guys, this is Margo," Edith pointed, "Margo this is them! They have a home and a car and dogs and a large yard and. . . "

While Edith was trying to take an entire inventory of everything in their lives, Mrs. Lautner looked over the sister. Her blazer was pristine and her hair perfectly brushed. Her glasses looked brand new although they were too small for her face. One hand clutched at a hard cover book, 'King Lear' was all she could read between the girl's arms. An open notebook was on the table in front of her with a lengthy page of notes. Neither she nor her husband valued school very much, never had and never would. Edith never talked of school and they had not planned to help her go to college. They assumed that she would want to take the scrapyard with her father.

Her sister would definitely want to go to school after her diploma.

As Mrs Lautner crunched the money numbers in her head on how they could do this, Mr Lautner had his own problems to deal with. Margo's eyes were about to fall out of her head, her mouth was hanging open and she hadn't even stopped looking at his wife's tattoos. He knew she was going to be frightened when she looked at him. He wished now, that he had stopped to take a shower, or put on a sweater or something.

Margo met his eyes for a second before looking down at her lap. She fingered her book for a few seconds.

Trying not to stare at her, Mr Lautner patted Edith on the back, greatly aware of how tiny she was compared to him. Hardly knee height. This other girl was not that much taller, even sitting on these tiny chairs, he towered over her enough to see the cue cards on her lap behind the desk.

Mrs Lautner finished crunching the numbers, they could do this. They'd just have to get rid of her car, she wouldn't cut off her hours, and they would put their retirement plan into this. They would still have what? 25 years after her university to save up? and then there was that she could get a scholarship or a loan. Maybe both.

Mrs Lautner felt her husband sigh quietly. She turned to console him, taking the hand that wasn't holding their future daughter up. Edith was still talking a mile a minute.

"It will be fine," She told him. He made eye contact, then gestured to the child again. Puzzled, Mrs Lautner shook her head, _I don't get it_. He shook his head, nodding at the child again. _Look_.

She did, once again looking at the little professor in front of her. It seemed the little girl was ready to talk to them now.

" H-hi, umm you must be the Lautners," She held her hand out and both of them reached for it first bumping knuckles.

"He he, sorry," Mrs Lautner let her husband go first.

Mr Lautner cursed his luck, trying not to completely engulf the tiny hand and at the same time watched as she nearly fell off the chair. It seemed impossible, but the child's eyes went even wider, and she seemed to pale to a light purple right before his eyes. Enough was enough.

"Sarah, can I talk to you for a moment?" He put Edith down before leading her out to the hall. His wife smiled at Edith as she firmly shut the door.

"This isn't going to work."

"What? We can do this! Margo will probably want college, we can deal with that! She's probably what we need in our lives, someone serious enough to read Shakespeare!"

Mr Lautner let her go having no idea what she was talking about. "College? Where'd that come from?" she gestured back to the room. "I'm talking about Margo. She's afraid, of you of me. Does she look like the kind of kid you get from the scrapyard? She wouldn't last a day in our home. Even if she wanted to come, do you think we could take care of her needs like Edith's?"

"What do you mean?" Mrs Lautner asked.

"If Edith builds a fort, we say good job. What would we say when Margo I don't know, reads Bach?"

"Use a piano honey?"

"Har, and I suppose when she runs for Prime Minister we'll ask her to drop taxes?"

"But," Slowly he could see it dawning on her, she was truly understanding this wasn't going to happen. And worse, she looked devastated.

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><p>Review, tell me what you think! But no bagging Margo, she was just a kid.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

A couple want Edith but do not like Margo. They only want to take one sister. Do not worry Agnus fans, she will be making an appearance quite soon. There is only one chapter after this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Despicable Me, but maybe they'll make a second movie anyways!

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><p>"Edith is such a cute kid! She is exactly what we were looking for!" Mrs Lautner paced back and forth for a few minutes. She never could be still when she was emotional.<p>

"Maybe she'll still come," Mr Lautner patted her back, catching her in a hug as she passed. "C'mere."

"We should tell them then," She pulled herself together quickly.

"Edith, sit up straight," They heard Margo demand.

"Sit up straight," Edith mimicked tapping her feet on the chair.

"And stop fidgeting, they will be back any moment!"

"hema hem hem hem hema fidget hema moment," Edith mirrored back. Margo just sighed, loudly.

Taking a deep breath, they opened the door. Sitting straight for the flash before running at them showed them exactly how much power Margo had over her sister. Unfortunately a further look confirmed Margo was still afraid. Edith came forward and took Mrs Lautner's hand.

"Did you hear back from the agency?" Edith asked. She had such hope in her little eyes and there was a happy glow to her face. She wasn't worried, she was excited. The jumping and smile thrown across the room showed she wanted to take Margo home today.

"Uh, We need to talk to you Edith," Mrs Lautner threw what she hoped was a gentle look at Margo, "Alone, please?"

Despite being glared at, Margo nodded politely and went into the hall, staying near the hall outside the door in case her sister needed her. Far enough away that she wouldn't be eavesdropping. Watching her prepare to wait at the end of the hall, Mr. Lautner gently closed the door.

"Come take a seat Edith," Mrs Lautner pulled her into her lap. "We have a slight problem."

"Like what?" Edith blinked up at her.

"Well, it's about Margo. We can't adopt her."

"Why not? Did the agency say only one?"

She wasn't sure if Edith knew it wasn't like buying puppies. She certainly spoke like all they had to do was ask and they could adopt as many kids as they wished. It hurt to think like that, no matter how much they had been wishing it for the past few years every time they had to fill out more forms and give another criminal record. Being a mom changed that for Mrs Lautner.

"No sweet heart, they said we could adopt two children," Mr Lautner sat down and rubbed the child's back.

"It is because she's too old, she's only a year older than most kids get adopted at!" They shook their heads. "You want a boy? I'm a boy! I'm very boyly!"

"No sweet heart, it has nothing to do with all that. . . Margo isn't right for our family," Mrs Lautner said gently.

"Why not?"

"She just isn't, can you picture her in the yard, or getting knocked down by the dogs-"

"She'd freak," Edith told them.

"And we don't want that, we want everyone to be happy. So we can't take Margo, but. . . " Mrs Lautner let the end hang, hoping Edith would want to come anyways. They watched her face dawn in recognition, oh.

"You could clean it up, we could help you! Margo is very good at finding messes, she'd want to like, paint the kitchen or something," Edith rolled her eyes. Already seeing Margo in their kitchen cleaning it up.

"It just wouldn't work." and there were no messes in her house, the agency wouldn't have looked twice if there were. And Mrs. Lautner loved the black tiles in her kitchen, they were at least 50 years old. And Mrs Lautner wanted to adopt two little girls to love and cherish and understand.

"I still want to take you though." Mrs Lautner watched as her soon to be daughter's eyes went wide.

"I-Do you know how much Margo has done for me? what we've gone through together? I can't just leave her here to be shipped off to like Washington or London or someplace! We're sisters!" Mrs Lautner calmed her down, rubbing her arms quickly. Edith sat there stunned.

"but you two are so different," Mr Lautner tried to reason out, "You are polar opposites. Some lawyer or accountant is looking right now for that little girl."

"and we would bring you back to visit every week, and you would still go to school, you'd see her there." Mrs Lautner refused to think that she was now begging, Edith just didn't realize what she was doing!

"But she wouldn't be part of our family." Mr Lautner pulled her in for a hug.

"She'd be an extended part of our family, our daughter's sister. You could call her anytime." Quite true, they had already accepted that the child would probably have some family to hang on to. They wouldn't get in the way of the sister's relationship.

"Until she's sent to another state or another country."

"Long distance calls are fun, we'll make daddy work overtime!" Mr Lautner sent her a warning glare, she was getting too desperate here. Physically his wife forced herself to sit back in her chair and try not to cry.

"We could always look for another family nearby to adopt Margo." Mr Lautner shook his head, warning her he was not pleased with his wife's tactics at all.

"I'm sorry mmo-Mrs Lautner, it's either both of us or none of us," Edith crossed her arms, "and if you try to go over my head, I'll make your lives terrible."

"What if we just try? The adoption papers can wait to go through. We can discuss them another time. Maybe after living with us, we will be able to adopt Margo as well, like we had planned," Mr. Lautner successfully reasoned out.

Taking Edith out of the home was hard. Not because of any problems with Mrs. Hattie, but because they had to wait for the girls to stop crying. Mr Lautner eventually went to the car because every time the girls looked at him, they began sobbing again. It had something to do with coming from an all girl's home, he was sure. Then there was the fact that he was holding up all her luggage and the door open to leave, but he chose not to believe that his almost daughter was so unhappy to come home.

It was fortunate that Margo had packed all of Edith's things already. Then again, Mrs Lautner was sure that the girl always successfully planned ahead and luck had nothing to do with it. Finally free to carry Edith away, Mrs Lautner carried her all the way out to the car.

The ride home was much more sober than the ride there had been.

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><p>Review please, especially if this is in your faves or alert list. Thanks to anyone who does.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

A couple want Edith but do not like Margo. They only want to take one sister. Do not worry Agnus fans, she will be making an appearance quite soon. There is only one chapter after this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Despicable Me, but maybe they'll make a second movie anyways!

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><p>Sadly due to a promise made late one night after a week of no sleep due to nightmares and crying and work, Edith was brought back to the home no less than three months later. Even when clearance came that they could adopt three children went through, Edith remained firm. She wanted Margo to be adopted.<p>

Mrs Lautner remained at home too upset to even get in the car. She remained firm though, Margo had no place in their house. They had taken the girl home for dinner in what was supposed to be a weekend sleepover, and she had gotten food poisoning. That was her own words. She had helped clean up the house, managing to find dirt Mrs Lautner had never even known was there in places she never thought to clean.

The problem was different for her husband. Mr Lautner refused to be limited to where he could go in his own house. Every time he was around her he couldn't say anything without her asking ridiculous questions or comparing one thing to another. She was skiddish and tried to hide it badly. She avoided him and kicked dogs when they ran at her, and she took up the bathroom an hour in the morning and an hour at night with Edith.

"Are you sure?" Mr Lautner asked one last time, luggage still in hand.

"It's both of us, or none of us," Edith crossed her arms arrogantly. She knew she had already won, she would not go without her sister.

Mr Lautner didn't say anything more until they were inside the house. Edith watched him go in a little shocked, after all this begging, she never thought she would return. Edith had the firm idea that they would adopt her sister too.

Edith followed behind feeling very abandoned, but not having the power to call him back now.

"Come for a visit?" Ms Hattie sneered at them.

"No Edith will be remaining here. My family wishes to not adopt her." If it hurt him to say it, he didn't show it.

"Edith, go get Margo, she'll settle you into a room," Ms Hattie sent her on.

Edith respectfully waited until the office door was shut before bolting through the house. Room to room she searched until she finally recognized Margo's ponytail out in the park. Margo just managed to look up before she was overcome with a sobbing mess of a sister.

"Edith?" Margo tried but Edith just ignored her, hugging her close. Something between them squirmed a little.

"Ahh, what is that?" Edith asked, looking into those big brown eyes.

"Our sister. I was hoping you could get the Lautners to adopt her as well. If you can, I'll take that fancy boarding school."

"I was brought back!" Edith sobbed.

"What? Let's go talk to him, I'm sure this can work it's way out!" Margo only had to drag her the first few feet and they were running as fast as their tiny legs could carry them. They managed to dash in the office before Mr Lautner left.

"Wait," Margo told him, "Please, can we talk? Edith's had some sense knocked into her."

Mr. Lautner stared at them, hand still on the door, "Alright, what is this about?"

"My sisters. You said you wanted two little girls, right? and you don't want me. This is our other sister, Agnus. She is nothing like me, she talks about unicorns and builds forts, jumps off anything tall. . . "

"And Edith would be fine with this?"

"Yes," Margo told him completely sure, "I'll be leaving for a boarding school after they go."

Mr Lautner was uncomfortable again, but then he always was around Margo. She just had that personality that made him uncomfortable.

"I already signed the papers."

"You can unsign them just as quickly," Edith told him.

"Listen girls. . . someone will want all three of you. I know it. But I can't do it. Edith alone I can, but not the whole family. I want to make my own family."

He left them standing there, completely heartbroken but waited until they had been sent to their room to drive off. He hadn't lied though, he knew even as a large tank cut in front of him that it was only a matter of time before they were adopted.

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><p>Two years later the Lautners were at the grocery store with their kids when they ran their cart into a strange dark man. Both men's carts landed on their sides and both men ended up on the ground.<p>

"Watch where yooor goeeeng," the strange man dusted himself off. He looked at the ruined fruit with a glare.

"Sorry man," Mr Lautner whiped his hands in his pants. The strange man sneered at him. Once again he had forgotten to change, who knew being a father was so busy?

"Dad!" both men turned to look. "Mr. Gru, I wanted to ask you. . . " She caught sight of Mr Lautner and stopped. "Hello Mr Lautner."

"Hello Margo, how is Edith?"

The little one told Gru to be nice when he opened his mouth, fingers twitching towards his jacket. Margo knelt down with them picking up the cart load. The three of them had their cart together in no time.

"She's in the video game isle across the store so nothing's changed," Margo nodded to herself, helping him with his many dented cans. His children were no where in sight now. It would take him a while to find them and his wife.

"What is he, your crash teacher or sometheeng? Please go get more fruit over der. I will clean up this," Gru nodded to the rest of Mr Lautner's things.

"I don't need any help, I'm nearly done anyways," Mr Lautner looked up to find Gru entering the checkout line at the end of the store, Edith's blond hair visible under her hat. She was apparently begging for something, Gru said something, and Mr Lautner watched as Edith tossed her game on the magazine rack.

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><p>What a jerk! Had to get that out there<p>

Review please, especially if this is in your faves or alert list. Thanks to anyone who does.


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